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Ilcpa 54 1
Ilcpa 54 1
ABSTRACT Improved charcoal stoves are known to generally develop high thermal efficiencies,
but most generate appreciable level of gas emissions which has made them unsuitable for use within
residential buildings. In order to eliminate this constraint, a supplemental air supply power pack was
introduced to improve charcoal stove thermal and aesthetic performance. This paper described the
experimental setup, test procedures and results showing optimized performance. Comparison
between performance characteristics shows the air aspirated stove and other improved charcoal
stove showed more than 20% increased efficiency, power input of 2.26 kW (0.691Kw/hr) and
overall thermal efficiency of 36.74% for the improved stove, the stove is thermally efficient more
than the traditional stove.
1. INTRODUCTION
Cookstove development has been an age long art since the stone ages when fire was ignited
with striking of two stones against each other to produce fire [1]. The slow but progressive
development of stove technology from the traditional 3-stone fire and mud stoves to improved
cookstove technologies and the gasifier stoves had revolutionized the industry and increased
awareness in its further development. Literature reports of stoves available locally do not at the
moment represent the best designs modern engineering can offer [2, 3]. However, the increasing
interest on issues of climate change and global warming has created awareness on the
environmental and social costs of using traditional fuels and stoves nowadays. Research results so
far showed that one stove may be efficient, another may heat faster, another safer, and each of them
pollutes more or less than the other [4]. It therefore depends on the stove designer to pick out a
design that best suits the locality and food types for which it is intended.
There exists a wide range of fuel used in cookstoves from firewood to biomass material
resources, to liquid fuel and fossil materials. Research results showed varied performance
characteristics of different fuel under different operating condition based on such performance
indicators as time spent in cooking 1kg of food material, specific fuel consumption values, burn
rates, thermal efficiency, among several other factors. Another critical indicator of stove efficiency
is the emission factor which became a topical factor in the 1980s [1]. Emissions of most concern are
particulate matter (PM), polycyclic organic matter (POM) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions.
The report of ISO/DIS 13336, [2] pointed out two issues of particular concern (variability in
emission control performance of wood stoves operated at homes and laboratory and the use of wood
and biomass materials in residential homes). These issues and its cause-and-effect relationships are
difficult to quantify due to the large number of interrelated variables associated with them.
This paper is an open access paper published under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY)
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
2 ILCPA Volume 54
Significant progress has been made toward cookstove designs with reduced emissions and
increased efficiency [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10]. However, further reductions in emissions are required to
meet WHO guidelines for indoor air quality (IAQ) [11, 3] to achieve significant health benefits.
Emissions in cookstove are traceable to poor or inadequate air supply to support burning.
Common practice in traditional 3-stone and mud stove cooking involves fanning with leaves and
lightweight materials to increase air supply. This work therefore seeks to increase secondary air
supply to combustion chamber to increase oxygen supply to support burning in an improved
charcoal stove. This research equally seeks to optimize the stove performance by incorporating a
rechargeable DC power pack for continuous fan operation that could last the coking period.
Where:
= energy requirement, Kcal/hr, = mass of food, kg, = specific energy, KCal/kg, T =
cooking time, hr
Airflow rate required for combustion was estimated to determine the size of the fan required.
The airflow per unit mass of fuel is dependent on the stoichiometric air (theoretical air) required to
burn the charcoal. Air flow rate can be computed using equation 2.
Where:
AFR = air flow rate, m3/hr
= equivalence ratio, 0.3 to 0.4
FCR = rate of consumption of fuel, kg/hr
SA = stoichiometric air of charcoal is 7.1 kg of air for 1 kg of Coal [13]
= air density, 1.25 kg/m3
A preliminary test using traditional test stove was conducted to determine the fuel consumption rate
(0.40kg/hr) and the amount of fuel consumed (0.38kg). Using an equivalent ratio of 0.4, the air flow
rate estimated using equation 3 is 0.35 m3/hr. The superficial air velocity within the fuel is
computed using the formula,
International Letters of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy Vol. 54 3
Where:
= superficial gas velocity, m/s
AFR = air flow rate, m3/hr
The choice of size of the combustion chamber dimensions between 95 and 105 mm and the
superficial velocity of 0.05 m/s for was made considering literature studies on gasifier stove design
and testing to meet the objectives of power, burn time, and minimum emission of particulate matter.
The resistance to airflow exerted by fuel and ash inside the combustion chamber during burning
was evaluated using the expression,
Where:
Resistance of fuel, cm of H2O
= height of combustion chamber, m
= specific resistance, cm of water/m of fuel
Stove components description
The experimental stove has a vertical Y- shaped structure consisting of two compartments namely,
combustion chamber (fire box) with internal clay lining and an ash/char compartment. The cooking
pot rests on the pot stand constructed of ¼ “mild steel rod while the combustion chamber consists
of 518.6 cm3 of insulating clay lining encased by a mild steel plate designed to accommodate
charcoal. A metal grate and screen 100x100mm (Figure 1) is provided as supports for fuel in the
combustion chamber to allow for free flow from aspirated air and ash drop during combustion.
c. A stop watch was used to monitor time of each of the activities (i.e. cooking and boiling)
during the tests.
d. Volumetric flask and beaker used to measure the volume of water before and after the boiling
test.
e. Test stoves: A conventional charcoal cook stove (Figure 5) which is popular among the rural
households in South East Nigeria was used for control test.
Where:
= time required to consume the fuel, hr
= volume of the combustion chamber, m3
= fuel density, kg/m3
FCR = rate of consumption of fuel, kg/hr
e. Percentage char produced: This is the ratio of the amount of char produced to the amount of
charcoal used. This can be computed using the formula presented by [12].
6 ILCPA Volume 54
Stoves
Constant variables Traditional
Improved (min)
(min)
Table 2 shows the test characteristics of the materials (stoves, fuel and food) used for the test and
measured weights of test parameters before and after the tests. At full load, the combustion chamber
International Letters of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy Vol. 54 7
can accommodate 0.8kg of charcoal, and 0.6kg of charcoal. At 75% loading, the amount of charcoal
that can be loaded is 0.55kg kg, while at 50% load, it is 0.48kg.
Table 2: Weight of measured test parameters before and after the test (full load)
With these results, using 0.57kg of charcoal in the improved stove is sufficient to provide
energy to cook a household meal and excess energy can be used to heat water for other domestic
purposes. Results of the operating performance of charcoal in the stoves in terms of fuel
consumption rate, char produced, specific fuel combustion, burn rate, and specific burn rate is as
shown in Table 4. The computed fuel consumption rate of the stoves ranges from 0.45 to 0.39 kg
per hour for traditional and improved stove respectively. The percentage amount of char produced
from the stove ranges from 12.5 to 28.8%%. This can be attributed to the higher amount of air
supplied by the blower as when the reactor is fully loaded with rice husks.
Table 4: The operating performance of the stove
The stoves power performance characteristics are as shown in Table 12. With the power input of
2.26 kW (0.691Kw/hr) and overall thermal efficiency of 36.74% for the improved stove, the stove
is thermally efficient more than the traditional stove.
Table 5: Power output and efficiency of the stove
Power input Power output Thermal
Stove
(kW/hr) (kW/hr) efficiency (%)
4. CONCLUSION
An air aspirated charcoal stove was developed, constructed and tested in comparison with a
conventional charcoal stove. In the design, parameters considered include air flow rate, superficial
velocity, insulation, and power thermal efficiency and emission rate. The incorporation of aspirated
air into the combustion chamber increased the thermal efficiency (by 12.23 %), reduce the fuel
consumption rate (by 13.33%), reduced charcoal usage (by 66%) and reduced gas emission which is
in line with the paradigm shift from fuel-efficient stoves to emission efficient stoves. There exists a
comparative advantage between an improved charcoal stove available in the market and the
aspirated stove when considering comfort, ease of operation and environmental friendliness as
tradeoff to cost. The average of cost of improved stoves ranges between N500.00 and N1, 400.00
while the cost of the aspirated stove (inclusive the stove and the power pack) is estimated at N2,
200.00.
International Letters of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy Vol. 54 9
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10 ILCPA Volume 54
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